The Last Hurrah, soaked in 'spirit of compromise'

Negotiators have a menu too long on the last day, here how they are poised
By Aditya Ghosh

It is uncannily similar to Copenhagen CoP15 last year, just too many discords to resolve on the penultimate day for the negotiators and ministers to pave way for a climate deal. Except a fractured mechanism of technology transfer and reducing emission from deforestation and degradation (REDD), there is no consensus on the critical issues of Monitoring, Reporting and Verification (MRV). Future of Kyoto Protocol looks bleak, mitigation mechanisms are still mired in differences.

As we snuggle in cosy comforts in a chilly capital of Delhi, the stressed negotiators will be working through in Cancun, Mexico to try and arrive at a consensus on various key elements of a climate treaty, which looked impossible even before the CoP16 had started, but during past two weeks the diplomacy and politics have made enough headlines and controversies. The magic wand certainly seems missing and a last-minute cowboy act like Copenhagen cannot be discounted. Everything seems to depend now on the 'spirit of compromise' as the Norwegian minister narrates it, urging all to “embrace” the spirit which he feels will lead to success. The all important question is who compromises, to what extent and how do we price these compromises. CSE had, in an earlier analysis in this website, explained that Cancun could only be described as a set of compromises. That is where it seems to be heading now.